1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to electronic devices and more particularly to a method and apparatus for adjusting the air pressure inside the ear of a person wearing an ear-wearable device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As the world proceeds to an aging society, patients with age-related diseases tend to increase. One such age-related disease is presbycusis which results in hearing degradation. Most of presbycusis patients use a hearing aid devices to overcome their hearing degradation.
Hearing aid devices may be used by congenital hearing-impaired patients, patients who have hearing impairment due to accidents or other diseases, as well as presbycusis patients. In general, a hearing aid device is an apparatus that is worn on the ear of a patient that amplifies sound according to the patient's hearing abilities. A typical hearing aid device includes a microphone for collecting sound, an amplifier for amplifying the sound, and a speaker or a receiver to output the amplified sound. Digital hearing aid devices may further include a CODEC or D/A and A/D converters, and a processor.
The type of hearing aid used may vary with the kind of hearing impairment of the patient. For example, in-the-canal hearing aids may be used on patients who have a whole frequency hearing impairment or a low-frequency hearing impairment and they may be inserted into the external auditory meatus in the ear. However, when inserted into the external auditory meatus as described above, in-the-canal hearing aids may block the space inside the external auditory meatus, i.e., the space between the tympanic membrane of the year and the hearing aid.
When such blockage takes place, the patient may experience an echo/feedback effect or a closure effect. The echo or feedback effect may be characterized by a condition in which sound amplified by the hearing aid echoes or resonates inside the ear of the patient to cause skull vibration so that low sounds become excessively amplified. In addition, the closure effect may be characterized by a condition in which the patient feels stuffy due to a difference in the air pressure between the interior and exterior of the patient's ear.
In order to prevent echo/feedback and closure effects, hearing aid devices may be provided with a vent hole that prevents the buildup of air pressure (e.g., either positive or negative air pressure) inside the patient's ear. However, in some instances, it may be difficult to outfit hearing aid devices with an appropriately-sized vent hole. One reason for this may be that of inadequate sizing. For example, the size of a given hearing aid device may be too small or large, the size of the external auditory meatus of a given patient may be too small or large, and/or the size of a given vent hole may be too small to permit air inside the patient's ear to be fully discharged. Furthermore, in some instances, vent holes may be unable to prevent the build of excessive air pressure during sudden changes in atmospheric pressure that are experienced when a patient mountain-climbs or performs another similar activity. For this reason, the need exists for new techniques for adaptively varying the size of the vent hole(s) of hearing aid devices, so as to compensate for conditions that cause the build-up of air pressure inside patients' ears.